Neill Franklin, retired police officer and Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, joined Roland Martin on NewsOne Now to talk about the police slowdown in Baltimore.

Franklin explained there is a “great void in leadership right now in Baltimore.” According to the former Baltimore police officer, there are many individuals in the law enforcement community who are calling for Baltimore police officers to do their jobs.

“We’re afraid of being prosecuted more than being shot for doing our job and for making a mistake.”

“Nowhere in this country do you see police officers being prosecuted inappropriately or even charged for making mistakes while doing their job. If you do your job according to the law, policy and training, you have nothing to fear.”

Later in the discussion, Franklin summed up why the community distrusts and is expressing a great deal of animosity towards law enforcement when he said the following:

“We have nothing in the bank right now in law enforcement from the community. We’ve mistreated residents, we’ve mistreated citizens, abused them — we’ve used foul language, we just treat them inappropriately and so now even when we do make a mistake, we just don’t have the support of the community and there is no transparency.”

Franklin continued, “We’re not used to seeing this, we’re not used to seeing police officers being treated as citizens when it comes to this sort of thing. She [Marilyn Mosby] did nothing different than if it were an average citizen or group of citizens who allegedly committed a crime.”

“She’s got probable cause for the charges. There’s been no judgment here. That comes during their day in court. She’s not judging anyone. She’s doing what she would do during a normal case when someone is suspected of committing a crime. You have probable cause to place the charges and that is what she has done … The rest will be up to the citizens of Baltimore during a trial to levy any kind of judgment.”